Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike remained alive after two lethal injections were administered during an attempted execution, prompting her lawyers to seek emergency medical intervention.
Pike, 50, was taken to an off-site hospital on Wednesday after losing consciousness but continuing to have a heartbeat, according to her legal team.
Her lawyers said she was audibly snoring when they filed an emergency motion asking a court to halt the execution and provide medical treatment.
The execution was carried out at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital, a drug used in lethal injection executions, while the curtain separating witnesses from the execution chamber was reportedly closed twice.
One of Pike’s attorneys told a British newspaper that she was receiving life-saving measures.
Her legal team later accused Tennessee of failing to conduct a lawful execution, citing difficulties accessing her veins and alleged problems with the drug used.
District Judge Clifton L Corker subsequently noted that medical personnel had begun treating Pike.
The Tennessee Department of Correction defended its handling of the execution, saying that officials had followed the state’s established protocol. Spokesperson Dorinda Carter said the protocol did not permit additional procedures beyond those carried out, and confirmed Pike had been taken to a medical facility.
Dr Joel Zivot, a medical expert retained by Pike’s lawyers, said she may not have received enough pentobarbital to cause apnoea, meaning a cessation of breathing, and cardiovascular failure.
He warned that delayed resuscitation could result in brain injury.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she and then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp attacked at a training camp for troubled teenagers.
The attempted execution followed several unsuccessful legal challenges.
The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal over mitigating evidence concerning Pike’s childhood sexual abuse and later overturned a lower court’s reprieve.
Tennessee’s Governor also rejected Pike’s clemency request this week. Pike is the only woman on the state’s death row.
